“It will arrive in the immediate area in about ninety years. But the effects will begin to be felt long before then. A fair estimate, if you are asking how long the current conditions of this world will endure, would be about sixty years.”

Derek sat back and stared at the overhead. “They aren’t going to be able to do much to help themselves. In fact, they probably won’t even know they have a problem until it appears in their skies.” Eventually, he looked in her direction. “What do you think we should do, Priscilla?”

“You mean whether we should warn them about what’s coming?” He nodded. “I can’t see anything to be gained by it. That assumes we could find a way to explain it at all.”

“I know.” He took a deep breath. “This is turning into a nightmare.”

“Let’s just go find the people from the ice world,” said Beth.

“I guess that would be the prudent course. For now, Priscilla, let’s do a flyover. Take a look. I’d like to get a sense of how they live. Maybe get some pictures of them.”

Hutch wanted to lighten the mood. “Why don’t we sit down with a couple of them, take them some pizza?”

“Are you serious?”

“I must have misunderstood you somewhere, Derek. I was under the impression you thought that sitting with aliens to see what they have to say about the universe was something you always wanted to do.”

“There’s some truth to that.”

“We’ll probably never have a better chance.”

“What I’ve always wanted to do was sit with somebody from a million-year-old civilization and exchange ideas.”

“Oh.”

“These guys do not qualify. Did you see the smoke coming out of the chimneys down there?”

“I saw it, yes.”

“They’re wood burners. But I would like to get some closeups of them. See what they’re like. So, how about we get in the lander and go down and find out?”

“Derek, let’s get serious for a moment. We’re supposed to stay far enough away so they can’t see us.”

“What harm can we do?”

“Letting them see us might have a long-range effect. And not a good one.”

“Priscilla, they don’t have a long-range future.” He was beginning to sound exasperated. “Look, we’ll be out of here by the end of the day. Tomorrow they’ll be in their boats talking about us, and by Friday something else will have come up and they’ll have forgotten all about us.” He got out of his chair and started for the passenger cabin. “Just relax,” he said. “We won’t change anything.”

•  •  •

“Okay, guys,” Derek said, “we’re going to take the lander down and look around a bit. Who wants to come?”

Everybody. They all went to the launch bay. Hutch opened the door of the lander. “We should leave someone on board.”